Tuesday, March 27, 2012

If you like low maintenance, high impact flowers that are drought resistant, you may like growing sparaxis bulbs, from South Africa. They grow similarly to freesias, with many blossoms along a single branch and are excellent as cut flowers. Unlike most bulbs, you can take the foliage down after blooming rather than wait for it to die back and next year's blossoms won't suffer for it.

Monday, March 26, 2012

These ladies were my teachers from age 4-8, kindergarten to the third grade, back in the 1950s. They all seemed so old then, to my young eyes. Miss Branson, above, had all 35 of us either reading or on the verge (and loving books) by the time we left her class for the first grade.

That's Miss Gendron, above. We could all tell time to within "quarter of, quarter after after and half past" and read the first Dick and Jane books when she was finished with us.

Miss Lux had taught in the district when my dad was in elementary school. She had the whole class adding and subtracting in the hundreds by the end of the year. Every Monday she'd write 25 new words on the chalkboard for us to learn and be tested on for comprehension and spelling by the end of the week.

In Mrs. Halprin's third grade class, we made papier mache kachina dolls and mosaics out of crushed egg shells we'd brought from home and dyed in class, learned our multiplication tables by heart, and the lyrics to the songs of the United States military services, which we sang with gusto.

To a person they were strict but kind and managed to teach the basics and more to some three dozen children without a thought for the condition of our self esteem.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

"A 9 year old boy, Jo Cafarella, 39 Warren Street, Somerville, Mass. His sister Lena, 10 years, and Mary Lazzaro, 13 years old, his cousin lives at 17 South Street. This is typical of their work. Very few boys work on crochet, but he has for 2 years. Location: Somerville, Massachusetts."

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

We've been trimming the carrotwood tree in the field next door, not only to add to our firewood stack, but just in case we get a wind strong enough to bring one of its larger branches down on our house.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Crystal Palace lobelia blooms almost all year around here, and although it's considered an annual, the way it reseeds, it may as well be a perennial. The foliage will be mostly green to begin with, but will turn a mellow maroon as the plant matures. It pairs up nicely with daffodils and irises, as when the bulb foliage starts to die back, the clumping lobelia will help fill in empty spots in your flower border.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

The last storm of winter that blew in yesterday brought plenty of welcome rain, then cleared out just in time for a painted twilight sky, with the kentia palms, giant bamboo and eucalytus trees drawn in silhouette.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Last year the US Navy ship Comfort deployed to Central and South America and the Caribbean to deliver medical and dental aid to 85,000 people in a dozen countries.

Our armed forces provide their excellent photos to the public at large, if you ever wonder what our military is up to without the filter of the predominant media. These photographs are courtesy of the United States Navy.

Monday, March 12, 2012

It's not uncommon for me to be about before dawn, so when daylight savings time kicked in yesterday, it already seemed late before the sun was even up. Just before daylight, the stillness drew me into the garden, where the flowers' beauty seemed even more pronounced against the black sky.

At the very top are trumpet vine buds, wending their way along the trellis above the front porch. And freesia blossoms, seemingly all the more fragrant in the dark.

Formerly robust daisy blossoms were going to seed.

And gallardia seeds that seem gray and dull in the daylight shown silver in the flash.